Month: July 2017

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I have questions that I need you to answer as honestly as possible. As a blogger do you strive to dish out the best content to your readers? How much time do you spend on your site upgrading it and making it appealing to visitors? Are you willing to break the bank and invest in your website? After you hit the publish button are you excited and looking forward to happy readers or are you nervous that the post will not really make a mark? As a blogger and entrepreneur, I have been in the game long enough to know that there are certain important aspects that need to be followed for survival and for a profitable journey. I will just mention the three most important things that have proven to be very vital in my blogging journey.

CONTENT

As a blogger strive to have blog content that is unique. Many might think that the only thing that matters in blogging is the content (the words that people read on the screen). Yes, strong, engaging and life changing content is hugely important, – but if your blog’s design shouts “unprofessional,”at first glance and your post looks hard to read, then visitors may not even get to the first line or peruse further. Often times, I have visited sites that look overrun by ads: one thing you should know is that it is not only the blog design that suffers, but the overall visitor’s experience as well. If you add your banner make sure you do it in a way that it does not over shadow or get in the way of you content.

Banners and links should be put in such a way that they co-exist with your content instead of being distractions. I do not like cluttered sites and I bet you do not either. You may not know what makes a cluttered site, but your readers and customers know when they are trying to navigate one. I have met with flashing ads that give headache, loads of links with ambiguous titles, all on one page!. Your audience would sooner go to another writer’s site that make site navigating a good experience and that does not give him a headache!

TIME

Blogging is such a wonderful yet complex experience and vicious circle. The more time you put into your blog, the more successful it becomes. The more successful your blog becomes, the more it demands of your time. Interesting isnt it?

Here you are, you have done everything right.

Check List

Grown your email list.

Networked on many bloggers platforms

Promoted on all social media

Probably were fortunate to guest blog on some awesome websites and you are rocking it.

Responded to every single blog comment.

Did every other thing on your secret list to make your blog successful.

Everything is going great but it’s OVERWHELMING. You can’t handle the pressure anymore. Time, which was never on your side in the first place, begins to mock you, it is just not on your side . As your influence in your niche and blog grows, it may feel as though you have 80 hours of work to do and only have a few hours to work on it. You have to keep up with hundreds of comments, come up with new juicy content, promote, live a life, do other side hustles and at the same time stay sane. The day is only 24 hrs!

Before it was easy to respond to only a handful of comments but now you are faced with comments and emails that are streaming in from all corners of social media and mailing services. As your blog grows and you have more demands of your time, it’s imperative you use that time the most efficient way possible. You can no longer afford the pleasure of being disorganized. For more tips on time management check out.. 6 Time management tips for bloggers

MONEY

This one is a bit personal for me. I am still on the Personal WordPress package for I am still deciding on whether I should go full time and monetize my blog or not. I know some bloggers, I included, hate the idea of spending money on advertising. It’s a real shame and disadvantage on our part. Just think of it this way, how many competitors are there, that are doing better than you in your niche? A lot, right? Well, one way to improve your authority is to devote a little bit of money promoting your work to a targeted group of people who are likely to be interested in your work. In my ongoing research I have noticed, much to my delight, that sponsored posts and advertising on Facebook and other social media is relatively cheap and very effective.

Blogging is one way that you can generate passive income from. It can also help you generate more referrals for your projects and business. It may seem like an easy way of earning money, at least for some it is but getting to point where everything is smooth sailing can be a very hard way. One of the hardest things about blogging is finding the time to practically put pen to paper. In this article I will cover time management tips. Hopefully they will help you and other bloggers find the time to blog even when you are also on a full-time job. If you have been finding it difficult to balance your time in blogging then this article is for you.

Set specific goals for your blog

Having specific goals as you approach your blog each day or week helps you cut out unnecessary things that will not help you achieve what you want. It helps to write out a number of goals for your blog for the month/year and keep them at hand from where you work from. I have made my goals as a wallpaper for my phone! Refer to them often. It can also help to make your goals public, in order to help put some pressure on you. I always share my goals with my Husband and children. (My seven y.o is very good at reminding you of what you have said). It is always good to start small, make sure your goals are attainable and will not leave you burnt out for the whole year. Goals are a huge motivation to doing something. Work progressively, step by step and as you attain that goal set another one.

Create an editorial calendar

Do a brainstorming session where you come up with a list of blog post topics that you would want to work on. From your brainstorming session, transfer your topic ideas to days you will publish your blog articles and plug those topics into an editorial calendar. This will help you determine what day you will publish a specific blog post. The calendar helps you when to write your blog post and what topic exactly you are to write about. You can also add other bits and pieces to your editorial calendar, such as keywords, an outline for your blog post. Editorial calendars come in various formats, you can choose a wall/ desk calendar or Google calendar. Choose the one which works best for you and your style of work.

Limit social media

We all know that having a blog isn’t just about the writing. After writing we PROMOTE our content. It is very important to promote your blog and normally bloggers do that by networking through social media. Social media is good but it can swiftly waste all of your time. Spending too much time on social media can leave you all hyped up, feeling like you have accomplished a lot with hardly any work done. I can work more effectively and come out with good and well researched content when I limit my time on social media. It’s very hard, but I think we can do it. Good, well placed comments and encouragements may come via the mediums you have used but do not get caught up glitz and glamour of social media! When I started blogging and promoting my content I got carried out away by the traffic and feedback I was getting that I spent time monitoring my stats and the comments. It’s important to interact with your readers but set a time in a day for that.

Schedule and stay organized.

Scheduling is setting up your posts to automatically post to Twitter, Facebook, and wherever else you want. I have noticed that, in terms of readership numbers, the more you publish posts the more your readership will grow. This however should not force you to do hurried and low quality posts. Yes, frequently give new and exciting posts to your readers. Scheduling your posts can be helpful on this one.

Also, remember you can schedule for today, tomorrow, next week and even for the whole month. Please, please go right ahead and schedule a few posts over the next several months and do not forget to come back and thank me.

Use a timer.

A timer has helped me a lot and I have grown to love my timer! I use it to keep myself on track when I need to get specific things done. I set my time for every task I have to do on a day. I set a timer every morning to check email. I have loads of mail coming in so I give myself 45 minutes to deal with them, then I check my mail every 2hours for 5 minutes. It will be very helpful to use your timer when you are on social media so that you do not get carried away . For example on a day that promoting your content on social media is not high on the priority list. Set aside 10 minutes for every hour and a half to check posts that needs your attention and replies.

Focus on one task at a time

As women we pride ourselves in our ability to multi task. I recommend that you put our focus on thing until completion. It is good to jot down your ideas as they come, even if they are for another post scheduled to release in a month. When it comes to blogging, whilst it is good to have a few outlines on various post, when it comes to completion, work on one, polish it and finish it. By putting half the amount of effort on two tasks, put 100% of your effort into one, this will help you dish out good blog post.

Extra thought: Think of blogging as making a family meal plan. You plan your menus in advance, making sure you have the right food items in your kitchen, it will be much easier to plan and prepare fo meals. The same is true for blogging: plan and you will be able to serve up a blog post that will satisfy your readers — all while saving you valuable time.

I would also like to know how you manage your time as a blogger. Please get in touch!

Working from home may be fun as you do it at your own time and schedule. It is common knowledge that the joys of working from home are equally threatened by the joys of procastination and the temptations of lying on the couch and watching telly. I can think of a lot of good things and advantages of working from home but one disadvantage is that it tends to distort the boundaries between work and personal life.

So how do we stay productive, and at the same time stay sane?

Set your working hours.

Commit yourself to office-like hours routine just like you do when in full time work, that way you are more likely to get work done during those hours. Working from home is really cool and one good thing is you can set your own working hours. For instance I mostly work in the night to correspond with the USA and Canada time zones. I live in Cyprus btw, and most of my clients are in the USA and Canada. Clients? You ask. Yes, I am a Virtual Assistant and Blogger. (Enough of me) Routines differ, some people work effectively in the morning, others in the afternoon, still others at the witching hour. If you work better at night, and the kind of work that you do permits it, start work at 7:00pm. But whatever your hours are, make yourself a routine, and be committed to it. Read more about my Journey (Virtual Assistance).

Take short breaks

These are important! Short breaks like making and eating lunch, can recharge you to do better work. It is wrong to assume you need to be working 100% of the time while you’re home to be more productive.

Exercise

Light exercise like standing up to stretch, going out for walks, popping into the garden and, once or twice a day. On the other hand a more vigorous workout will keep your mind more alert and your body less desk-shaped. Taking some time to exercise will also ensure your relationship with the home office doesn’t feel constricting and claustrophobic.

Get goals

Working from home means there is no line manager who will come for appraisals so you need to invent your own checking systems. Plan out what you’ll be working on ahead of time. Schedule, if possible, around your natural schedule. Make sure you follow the laid out plan. Believe me at the end of the day you want to feel like you are going somewhere and ensure that years don’t pass by without any noticeable achievements in money or, especially, job satisfaction.

Me-time

Take some time to do something you love which is not remunerative, something for you. In your schedule allow time for self-improvement and self-care, whether that’s painting, reading, creative writing. Work can feel like fun at times, but it’s rarely the real thing. You can take on something useless – as in not remunerative or take some time to reward yourself – for example visit a Spa or a Nail Bar to get your nails done. Me time is essential for mental health.

Choose a dedicated work space.

Have a place dedicated space to working (it doesn’t have to be big). It could be a certain table, chair, local coffee shop. That way, when you enter it or sit down, you know straight away what you are there to do. Having a dedicated working space helps you get into the right frame of mind. On that note if you choose a room make your environment clean and bright.

Interact with other humans.

This may sound funny but this is very important. As a human being you need to interact with other people. I know there are deadlines and big goals to achieve but just take an hour or two during the day to talk to other people. Answer emails, call and a have a chat with a friend. This may also boost your level of creativity and energy as it may relax you.

Know when to stop.

When I started blogging I would work long hours as the pressure to perform was upon me. This may make you feel like you have worked hard and done a lot in a day but it may take a toll on your body and health. Avoid working late into the night. If need be, set defined times when you are going to work, and then when it passes, STOP. You can allow a leeway of an hour or an hour and a half but make sure that you do not end up letting work run your life.

Cheers and happy working from home.

»»I may have made you think of hiring a Virtual Assistance. Before you do that check out Before you hire a VA.

A lot of people when you talk about how to drive traffic to a website or blog think mostly of on-page SEO techniques and Google Analytics. Well, these are all very important aspects, but much take time to learn and master. How about for beginners and for new bloggers who are just starting? Don’t get me wrong, SEO is not dead. Optimizing your content for search engines is still a valuable and useful practice. You should always make the most of image alt text, create internal links to new content and use meta descriptions.

However, it is important that you know how to grow the traffic that is coming to your website, and not rely entirely on search engine optimization. Otherwise, if your primary traffic source fails you, it could be a disastrous end for your business. To formulate great content for your blog please read this: How to create great content for your blog

In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can increase web site and blog post traffic without having to rely only on SEO. You may be already doing some of the techniques already but I urge you to brace yourself for what’s coming.

Go social!

Advertising and content promotion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other networks is relatively cheap. These social platforms also allow you to segment down by demographics or target by keywords so that you reach your ideal audience. Some other people have started Facebook groups that drive traffic to their sites. This is where they target a niche-specific group where members get support and also the privileges of networking with their colleagues. The trick here is mainly pointing back members to your site’s content thus improving your traffic.

Create and promote boards and pins on Pinterest

Pinterest is one strong domain that you can use to boost traffic to your blog. Carefully created Pinterest boards can rank very well but you need to promote the content, you cannot just create content and expect it to flourish and drive traffic to your blog. Conduct a typical keyword research for your website, then take some of those keywords and target them on Pinterest. Another successful tip is to link your other online resources (website, Instagram, etc.) to get your pins and boards indexed faster. Rankings are influenced by engagement stronger than ever before, so use some budget to promote pins on Pinterest to your target audience.

Engage Google+

Content shared through Google+ often ranks in regular search results, available to everyone who uses the web, regardless of their social affiliations. What people should know is content shared on social platforms like Facebook and twitter basically stays there. Shocking, right? Your network will only access that information when they are looking at Facebook and Twitter. On the other hand, when you share content on Google+, your network can see it every time they search Google. Take time out to expand your Google+ network and share good content at regular times.

Join a blogging community

Becoming member of blogging communities like Stackstreet ,ProBlogger and CopyBlogger is a great way to network with other bloggers, and to cross-promote each other’s content. Other bloggers network sites include

Build and maintain relationships with others in your niche

This always works out!! Building and maintaining personal relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche will often result in organic inbound links. You can also benefit from traffic referred to your site by other bloggers.

Write and accept guest Posts

Guest posting is not just about receiving backlinks. It is also a great opportunity to target new audience, increase subscribers, and grow your online audience. You can also use it to build relationships with other niche influencers. Accepting guest posts brings more traffic and popularity for your blog; you will be able to put out decent amount of posts on your blog in the form of guest posts on regular basis. This in turn can help with getting more pages from your blog indexed by the search engines.

The more pages indexed in search engines, the more traffic and popularity for your blog. Many people will be able to know about your blog when they find your blog in search engine results for their searched terms. Guest bloggers are automatically removed from the direct competitors’ list.A guest blogger has invested in your blog and will promote the content that they have produced, which also gets you in front of their own audience.

Create a Better Content Marketing Strategy

This right here is where many people and business alike miss it. They either don’t have a content marketing strategy, or if they do they do not have a proper one. You can try utilising all the SEO hacks, but without a solid content marketing strategy, you’ll be playing with your time. Your content marketing strategy is your “why” guideline. Why you are creating the content, who you are creating it for, and how you will make their lives better in a way no one else can.

Internal Linking (important!)

What is it? An internal link connects one page of a website to a different page on the same website. In an internal link, the source domain and target domain are the same. This can mean you’re adding links from one blog post to older posts or from certain pages to other pages. These types of links are useful because they keep your readers navigating your website and help improve the search rank of the pages you link to. Internal linking strengthens the overall search-optimized value of a website. Inner linking provides clear website navigation paths and prolonged sessions for users.

Make Sure Your Site is Responsive and is fast

In April, 2015 Google officially claimed that responsive design will affect search rankings on mobile devices. Responsive design is a web design and development technique that creates a site or system that reacts to the size of a user’s screen. Today, more people than ever before are using mobile devices to access the web on the go and most users do not want to use webpages that take minutes to load. An unresponsive site is one good way of telling your visitors to go away. If your site takes forever to load, your bounce rate will be sky high. Ensure that your website is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones. Make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as possible, including image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins.